Key Project Management Skills Needed for the Future?

Key Project Management skills for the future

By Linky van der Merwe

This article explores two major trends that we observe and attempts to understand what impact these trends will have on the skills of project management practitioners in order to position ourselves better for the future.

“We are looking at a future in project management where the definition of success is determined by the creation of business value. There will be continuous scope changes and customer involvement will be mandatory.” says Dr Harold Kerzner, Executive Director for Project Management for the International Institute for Learning. “Project staffing is now all about capacity planning and resource management. The metrics of the future will have to track tangible as well as intangible elements.”
Future of Project Management

According to Dr Harold Kerzner, business metrics will include:

Business profitability
Portfolio health
Portfolio benefits realization
Portfolio value achieved
Portfolio selection and mix
Resource availability
Capacity utilization
Strategic alignment
Business performance

Major Trends

Let’s look at the major trends impacting businesses today and what it means to the future of jobs.

Trend 1: Customer Experience

By 2020 customer experience will become the key brand differentiator above price and products and customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.

Trend 2: Digitization

Digitization refers to things like Automation and Artificial Intelligence, the capability to move work offshore and the demands of the customer changing in frequency and complexity.

The impact of digitization to our workforce will mean huge reduction in jobs and big changes in skillsets. More than half of school children in primary school today will work in jobs that don’t exist yet.

The World Economic Forum is forecasting that 75% of businesses will become fully digital by 2020. According to McKinsey, organisations are responding by retraining, hiring and doing a mix between the two.

Impact on the Future of Jobs

The Future of Jobs Report by the World Economic Forum states that the industries which can expect the biggest disruptions, include:

Financial Services and Investors
Infrastructure
Mobility
Information & Communication Technology
Professional Services
Energy
Consumer
Health
Media, Entertainment and Information

The skills that are in decline can be summarized as:

Project Management administrative and tactical skills
Data collection and data analysis
Predictable work and repetitive tasks

By 2020 skills will need to transition to:

Complex problem solving
Critical thinking
Creativity
People management
Coordinating with others
Emotional Intelligence
Judgement and decision making
Service orientation
Negotiation
Cognitive flexibility

Future Project Management Skills

For the past few years the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) emphasis on skills has changed to include a combination of technical, leadership, and strategic and business management expertise. The definition of each skill can be explained as follow.

Technical project management: Knowledge, skills and behaviors related to specific domains of Project, Program and Portfolio Management.
Leadership: Knowledge, skills and behaviors specific to leadership-oriented, cross-cutting skills that help an organization achieve its business goals.
Strategic and business management: Knowledge of and expertise in the industry or organization that enhances performance and better delivers business outcomes.

The Strategic Execution Framework

Stanford University has developed a White Paper called The Strategic Execution Framework to help companies stay on track, aligning projects with key initiatives to achieve desired outcomes. It is based on the concept that the building blocks for strategic execution are projects, put in place alongside regular operations to achieve speciﬁc goals.

The framework consists of six domains easily remembered by the mnemonic: INVEST

The domains include:

Ideationis your company’s understanding of what it is and how it appears in the world, expressed through its purpose, identi ty and long-range intention.

Nature creates the conditions for strategic execution. It embodies the culture and structure within which, you operate.

Visionincludes the goals, metrics and strategy that form the foundation for your business.

Engagement connects the enterprise strategy to IT project portfolio investments and clearly demonstrates that your company is funding the right IT projects to further its strategy.

Synthesisis where engagement meets execution, ensuring you’re successfully executing IT projects and programs in alignment with the IT portfolio as well as the enterprise’s overarching strategies.

Transitionis the ultimate measure of success, where you move the results of IT project-based work into the mainstream of operations.

Each of the domains presents opportunities for improvement. The framework helps you identify disconnects and barriers to successful strategic execution and it provides a common language and way of understanding how businesses successfully execute, innovate, change, and grow. You can assess your organization within this context and make necessary adjustments to create a foundation for balanced strategic execution.

Skills Gap in the Digital Era

A Price Waterhouse Coopers Report, based on a survey among 1300 CEO’s, indicated problem solving as the most sought after skill, then leadership, adaptability, creativity and innovation, STEM skills, risk management and digital skills.

Considering the survey results, the skills that Project Professionals seemingly need to develop the most are:

business acumen
leadership skills
versatility
technology skills
executive communications
application of emotional intelligence attributes.

Continuous Learning

Considering how much growth and development is required to close the skills gaps, there are many ways to learn. You can learn by doing (on the job, stretch assignments), learn from others (mentors, shadowing) and finally formal learning, like a degree.

Also refer to this excellent research article by Louise Worsley called: Be a Project Management Professional Learner, providing a break-down of The Future Work Skills 2020 Report.

PM Skills Development Action Plan

Here are some recommendations for you in 2019 to position yourself as a Project Professional in 2020 and beyond.

Develop an action plan
Keep reading to stay on top of industry trends
Grow others around you
Take every opportunity to demonstrate leadership
Be aware of culture as an enabler for project success
Build diverse teams
Always focus on your customers

Please subscribe to Virtual Project Consulting not to miss future articles, tips and success stories!

Sources

The future skillset needs for Project and Program Management by John Daly, a PMI Organisational Agility Conference 2018 presentation
Future of Project Management by Harold Kerzner
The Future of Jobs Report by the World Economic Forum, Forrester, Gartner, Accenture, Hay Group, 2020 Workforce
Customers 2020: A Progress Report by Walker Customer Experience Consulting, 2017
White Paper: The Strategic Execution Framework by Stanford University, developed by IPS Learning, LLC and Raymond Levitt and used in the Stanford Advanced Project Management Program.

December 27, 2018December 27, 2018 Linky

What is Cognitive Computing exactly?

The purpose of this article is to help Project Professionals better understand the meaning of Cognitive Computing and how it’s disrupting business today.

CC describes technology platforms that, broadly speaking, are based on the scientific disciplines of artificial intelligence and signal processing. These platforms encompass machine learning , reasoning , natural language processing , speech recognition and vision (object recognition), human–computer interaction , dialog and narrative generation, among others
Wikipedia definition of Cognitive Computing (CC)

Cognitive computing makes it possible to process data much faster than humans according to research done by Ohio University. If you allow cognitive computing to transform your business, there are certain principles to adhere to, factors to consider for adoption and ways to integrate it into business.

Principles

Humans and computers are now interacting. In business, robots could help professionals as follows:

identify and avoid bias,
make well-informed decisions,
increase the speed and consistency of decision-making.

According to IBM, Artificial Intelligence (AI) should serve a distinct purpose. This purpose, whether it’s used in systems, products, or services, must always be under human control as AI exists to assist humans, not replace them.

A layer of transparency is required. For AI to work, business leaders need to trust the results. This means there must always be clear answers to AI usage, the data the AI handles, and AI is protecting the data and its insights.

Worker skills need to be enhanced. AI doesn’t work without humans, so business leaders need to support them by ensuring workers have proper training to work with AI in a safe, secure, and efficient manner.

Businesses using cognitive computing will likely have to create or be subject to various policies. This can be viewed as an extension of policies around data and privacy, which are continually evolving. In this case, proactively preparing policies could help combat fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Adoption

IBM offers some ideas for adopting Cognitive Computing.

Develop a cognitive strategy to determine where AI should fit among products, services, processes, and operations.
Construct a foundation of useable and reliable data and analysis.
Another key strategical component is the use and proper configuration of cloud services.
Businesses must fine-tune their IT systems for cognitive workloads.
Finally, business must make sure the cognitive computing system is secure.

Steps to Integration

An integration approach needs to consider a few things.

Businesses must firstly determine what opportunities exist to create more engaging and personalized customer experiences.
They must also pinpoint specific data that can help them meet objectives but isn’t being leveraged.
Then calculate the cost of their organization relating to non-evidence-based decisions.
They also need to determine the benefits gained by detecting hidden data patterns.
Finally, they need to figure out their organizational expertise skill gap.

Below you will find an Infographic that provides a good summary of Cognitive Computing.

Ohio University

October 17, 2018 Linky

Technology Trends in Education

Although this Infographic, developed by School of Education, American University, has facts that are US based, it is quite applicable to any developed and in some cases developing, countries.

When technology meets education there are 5 emerging trends. They are:

#1 Learning Management Systems (LMS) which is often used by training institutions and even Corporates, for distance learning.

#2 Gamification where algorithms are deployed to build educational games.

#3 Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) where tech-driven information is overlaid onto an existing environment.

#4 Coding and robotics which have been introduced at schools at a rapid pace

#5 The development of the smart classroom where technology is used to create a personalised learning experience for students

September 27, 2018October 27, 2019 Linky

Women in Leadership – 7 Skills to Develop

By Linky van der Merwe

“My best successes came on the heels of failures.” -Barbara Corcoran

I like this quote from Barbara Corcoran, Founder of The Corcoran Group, New York’s largest real estate company. Barbara is an expert in the art of leading a team to success and in how to build a successful business. It’s a big statement admitting to failure as well as success.

In the Project Management industry many women have the opportunity to take the lead on projects and in most instances they excel in this role. They care about their team members and derive satisfaction from leading a team to successful delivery.

But how do women become successful as leaders? If you look around, you will find women who are successful leaders in every industry, from government to business, entertainment, and sports. Fortunately, there are leadership skills commonly found among women in leadership positions, and they can be developed.

According to Susan C. Foster, an Executive Coach and author of ‘It’s Not Rocket Science: Leading, Inspiring, and Motivating Your Team to be Their Best’ there are 7 leadership skills that stand out.

#1 Effective Communications

The ability to communicate effectively is arguably the most important skill for a successful leader and it’s not limited to speaking, but also include listening, writing and being able to read and use nonverbal language.

Many women are naturally good communicators, making polishing this skill easier as long as it’s done deliberately.

#2 Strategic Vision

Successful women leaders are able to influence other leaders and effect organizational change.

Women need to trust their own voices and learn to ‘Lean in’ more by sitting at boardroom tables with decision makers and executives, as per Sheryl Sandberg’s book by the same name. They can excel at uniting teams behind a common vision.

#3 Creativity and Innovation

Today’s business environment is all about uncertainty and competition. Successful women leaders bring creativity and innovation to the challenges by bringing diversity, different working styles, and viewpoints to their teams.

#4 Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage our own emotions, and those of the people around us. Some key elements are self-awareness, motivation, empathy and social skills.

Although many emotional intelligent skills are part of how women are made up especially when also being mothers, these skills need to be consciously developed and practiced.

#5 Critical Thinking and Problem solving

Critical thinking to solve problems means asking vital questions around a problem, gathering and assessing relevant information, and coming to a well-reasoned conclusion. Successful women leaders think open-mindedly about their assumptions and possible consequences.

Women who are always running around wearing many different hats, have to make time for thinking and for being reflective so that better solutions to problems can be found.

#6 Confidence

Leadership is about having the confidence to make decisions based on a reasonable amount of data and then doing what you think is right.

While women may not necessarily be brought up to be overly confident, this is critical if you want to succeed in leadership positions – you need to have faith in your own ability to make good decisions.

#7 Trustworthiness

Successful women leaders are trustworthy, first and foremost. When you establish a climate of trust, your team commits to goals, communications improve, and ideas flow more freely.

Building good relationships cannot be overestimated, as the trust fostered in such relationships is what allows teams to excel and work better together.

Source: 7 Leadership Skills of Successful women

Some content was reposted and provided by Maryville Online Degree Programs.

More Leadership Resources

Maryville University Organisational Leadership site for Women – containing research and tools for women managers, executives and entrepreneurs, to develop your skills.

Resources for women in the business world– The information from Zen Business.com goes in-depth on females who have changed the entrepreneur world, how to go about starting a business, writing business plans, Business finances and many other resources.

August 22, 2018 Linky

How to Manage Different Generations at Work

By Linky van der Merwe

We all will soon find ourselves in the situation where there are 4-5 different generations in the workplace. Are you ready for that future at work?

Managing the mixture of ages, faces, values and views is an increasingly difficult task. According to the book: “Generations at Work: Managing the clash of Veterans, Boomers, Xers and Nexters in your Workplace”, the authors R Femke, C Raines and B Filipczak describe it as:

“diversity management at its most challenging.”

It helps to understand the impact of having different generations in the workforce. Know who they are and what motivates them and prepare for that future workplace. From Baby Boomers, to Millennials, to Generation X and Y.

Watch this video and let me know what you think in the comments.

August 15, 2018February 14, 2022 Linky

Productivity Experts’ Views on Peak Performance

By Linky van der Merwe

Recently I attended the Peak Work Performance Summit hosted by Dr Ron Friedman. Ron Friedman, PhD, is an award-winning social psychologist who specializes in human motivation and he’s author of the book: “The Best Place to Work”.

In the previous article: “What I Have Learned About Peak Work Performance” I shared some great takeaways from the speakers who were interviewed. In this article I’m going to share more views from well-known productivity experts.

Building an external brain

I was really impressed with how much I’ve learnt from David Allen, author of “Getting things done”. Here are two highlights.

He explained how we are bad at remembering, but good at recognizing. We need to clear internal mental space to make room for good ideas. Our head is for having ideas; not for holding them. That’s what he means by building an external brain – objectify it; get your head empty.

He’s also of the opinion that you shouldn’t take notes on a laptop. It’s better to write things down and to see lists visually rather than digitally.

Combat procrastination

People procrastinate because they feel out of control or uncertain about what to do or where to start. If tasks are described on a physical level of what to do next by using verbs, it’s much easier to have a kick-start. if not, you procrastinate and you have the nagging feeling of ‘when will I do this?’ So remember, put them all on your list with next actionable steps and review it regularly.

Essentials only

A few valuable lessons can be learned from Greg McKeown on determining what is essential and eliminating everything else. He authored the book: ‘Essentialism – Disciplined pursuit of less.

He explained that if you want to become distinctive; find out what makes you really good. Choose to be an Essentialist at work. Saying NO is a very important skill; but do it in a very polite way. Focus on what is essential, concentrate on getting that done well, as that will add most value.

Don’t use busyness as a badge of honour. When you are asked: ‘How are you? – choose to respond differently.

Instead of stating how busy you are and doing a million things, rather share a story from your life – like what you did yesterday with your children. Busyness may let other people feel you are more important, but could also make you look like you’re not in control.

Practices for the Essentialist

Create space to explore what is essential.
Every day write down the 6 things you want to do for the day; prioritise the list, cross off 5; focus on nr 1. Only work on what’s important now. When done, take the next thing.
Reallocate resources to the one thing that should get done; make it as effortless as possible

He’s starting a movement on how to become an Essentialist – so watch that space.

How to coach your teams

I want to conclude with the work of Michael Stanier, author of “The Coaching Habit”.

Learn how to coach your teams better by doing the following:

Listen a bit longer
Be slower to rush to action and advice
Probing more to find out what’s below the surface
Ask a question like: “what’s the real challenge here for you?” It puts the emphasis on the person, rather than the problem.

Look for leadership where you empower people to solve their own problems, and to be self-sufficient.

Have a few good questions. For example, in response to what a person is saying, encourage them by asking: “yes and what else?”
Understand the dynamics of behaviour change – habits are the building blocks.
Overcome the urge to give advice. Rather use the question: ‘what else?’ instead of telling the person what you think.

If you like the Peak Performance ideas and you want to know more, I have good news for you.

You can get Lifetime access to the ‘Peak Work Performance Summit’. You will have unlimited access to interviews with people who are sharing valuable information based on years of research for books and based on their real life experience.

Click here for the Peak Work Performance Summit Lifetime Pass.

August 9, 2018April 11, 2022 Linky

What I Have Learned About Peak Work Performance

By Linky van der Merwe

We all want to become healthier, happier and more productive, but we seldom address these desires consciously on a day to day basis. Recently I was so fortunate to attend the Peak Work Performance Summit hosted by Dr Ron Friedman. Ron Friedman, PhD, is an award-winning social psychologist who specializes in human motivation and he’s author of the book: “The Best Place to Work”.

Since I’ve learnt so much from each interview that Ron so masterfully conducted, I have decided to share a few takeaways with you. By simply applying some of these principles, I believe it has the potential to transform your life!

Find a 2nd article on Peak Work Performance here.

Pre-mortem instead of post-mortems

I loved this idea from Dan Pienk, an idea I have come across before, but I’m now more motivated to apply it at work as well as for personal growth.

He recommends doing a pre-mortem every six months asking:

What do I want to learn?
What do I want to achieve?
What are the pitfalls?

Like you can imagine, this can lead to much better goals that will be easier to achieve, since you are already addressing anticipated challenges even before they appear.

As for starting a new project, it’s a good idea to start with a pre-mortem so that the project can be setup for success, because it helps to think through what success will mean and it will identify possible risks or obstacles that may be blockers to successful delivery. Then a project manager and team can purposefully go ahead with the intention of solving possible problems even before they occur and continue to follow the markers identified for success.

Find out more in Dan Pink’s book: Drive by clicking on the image.

Reduce your focus to achieve better results

What Jay Papasan shared about the one thing that high performers do differently, is that it helps to reduce your focus to achieve better results. What does he mean by that?

It means that you focus on your one thing – the 20% that give 80% output. By doing one thing only, it could throw other things off and it may seem like the balance can go off, but in reality you are focusing on the one thing that will yield the biggest results. This can be applied at work, but also to your health, finances and family life.

Another interesting point he made, was to put being a husband or wife first, before being a parent, because you want to role model being good in marriage. Where else will our children learn to stay committed in marriage?

Find out more in Jay’s book: The one thing by clicking on the image.

For good fruit to grow, you need to be pruning

Todd Henry, who writes about creativity, productivity, and how to find passion for your work, shared an important principle. For good fruit to grow, you need to be pruning, like for a vineyard.

According to Todd, it’s important to learn to say NO to things. Build good practices around the domains you need to excel in. For example, establish blocks of time for study, reading or for writing, whatever it may be that you are doing.

Innovation happens in the gaps, in the quiet times. Create space in your life to bring the best of who you are to what you do. Personally, I loved this statement and as a working mom of 3 children, I constantly have to remind myself to carve out space in my life in order to be my best self.

Read Todd Henry’s books to find out more.

“The accidental creative – How to be brilliant at a moment’s notice”
“Herding Tigers – Be the leader that creative people need”
“Louder than words – Harness the power of your authentic voice”

Pillars of Success

Craig Ballantyne, coach to high-performing entrepreneurs and executives to get more done, have massive impact, grow their influence, and have a personal life, shared ideas to help you ‘own the day and control your life’. He shared five pillars of success:

Do better planning and preparation than ever before
Have a measureable outcome; have action points at the end
Positive social support – engage with people around you for support
Meaningful incentive that will motivate you
Self-imposed deadline and the power this has to help you stick to what you’re doing

Read his book: “The Perfect Day Formula” for more ideas on how to have the perfect day.

If you like the Peak Performance ideas that I shared in this article, I have good news for you.

Click here for the Peak Work Performance Summit Lifetime Pass.

July 26, 2018 Linky

Is your company striving to break the glass ceiling?

Companies striving to break the glass ceiling can deploy several tactics to promote transparency in hiring and retaining women and minority employees. Large public companies including Facebook, Microsoft, and Google have led the way in this promotion by revealing internal data concerning the racial makeup of their workforce.

One of the key ways that corporations can remove the glass ceiling is by demonstrating behaviors that value diversity. This can be accomplished in three steps.

To respect cultural, religious, gender, and racial differences.
To manage and work with individuals from different racial or cultural backgrounds.
To promote overall demographic balance within an organization; one that relates to the demographic makeup of a company’s broader geographic area.

Being a diverse company has several tangible benefits. Ethnically diverse companies are 35 percent more likely to outperform non-ethnically diverse companies, and gender diverse companies are 15 percent more likely to outperform their non-gender diverse counterparts. Studies also indicate that a company’s earnings rise 0.8 percent for every 10 percent increase in racial and ethnic diversity they deploy.

The University of Ohio in the United States has produced an interesting Infographic about The Glass Ceiling frustrating Women and Minorities in Business. Although statistics pertain to the US only, it’s very insightful, especially the reference made to the Success Stories of the Tory Burch and Sheryl Sandberg Foundations. Sandberg’s book, Lean In, made a big impression on me when I read it a few years ago and it’s a book I would recommend to all young professional women.

The Glass Ceiling

June 6, 2018February 14, 2022 Linky

Ongoing Value of the PMO

In light of the upcoming PMO Conference in London, UK, in June, I wanted to share some exciting information on PMO awards.

The PMO Global Awards is the PMO Global Alliance’s annual award for the most outstanding Project Management Offices in the world.

It intends to inspire organizations around the world to evolve their Project Management Offices and project management practices to achieve the best results.

Click here to find out more about PMO Global Alliance.

PMSA PMO Award

Locally, the Project Management South Africa or PMSA would like to introduce a PMO category as part of its Exceptional Project Management Awards programme. It will result in local recognition as well as nominations towards the Africa Region leg of the Global PMO Alliance Awards.

This programme will build on the requirements for the Global PMO Alliance Awards which examine the following components:

PMO’s journey
Client service
Best Practices
Innovation
Community
Value generation

The winners will be announced in November at the PMSA National Conference taking place from 14-16 November in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Renewing your PMO

Lastly, I want to refer you to a very insightful, researched article about improving the value of your PMO by Louise Worsley.

January 4, 2018May 12, 2019 Linky

The Importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) requires a company to take responsibility for the impact of its operations on society and the environment therefore it can be described as the efforts a company makes beyond the legal requirements to improve society as well as the environment.

According to a 2016 study involving CEOs, over 65% of the CEOs who took part in the study, said that companies are increasingly treating CSR as a core aspect of business rather than a stand-alone side channel.

The Harvard Business Review recommends a number of approaches to engage in CSR:

#1 Transform the business model

This entails creating new forms of business to address the environmental or social issues with the aim of boosting business performance. A good example of this is hiring locals to help in the distribution of products instead of outsourcing that service to another company. By doing so, a company would be able to lower its operating costs, create employment opportunities for the locals and ultimately help grow the local economy.

#2 Improving operational effectiveness

These are the efforts geared towards boosting the functional performance of a business. For this reason, they optimize a company’s operations and in the process deliver social and environmental benefits as well. Examples of such efforts include green initiatives that not only help a company conserve natural resources, reduce pollution and waste, but also reduce its operating costs.

#3 Engaging in philanthropy

Philanthropy initiatives should not aim to boost a company’s profits or improve its performance. Instead, they should aim to benefit local community programs and charities. In most cases, such initiatives involve donating money or other assets to charities and other community programs.

Below is an Infographic from Norwich University Online explaining how consumers are more passionate about global social issues and would consider a company’s CSR efforts before buying its stocks or mutual funds. It also provides recommendations for how to improve engagement in CSR.

Norwich University Master of Business Administration Online

August 17, 2017February 14, 2022 Linky

10 Leadership Lessons from Extreme Environments

By Linky van der Merwe

Do you know some-one who climbed the Seven Summits (highest peak on each continent) and skied to both the North and South Poles? Meet Alison Levine, a small person with a big heart for adventure. And not just any adventure, but extreme adventure that earned her the title of achieving the “Adventure Grand Slam”.

After listening to Alison Levine as keynote speaker at the PMXPO2017 I bought her book: “On the edge: Leadership lessons from Mount Everest and other extreme environments.

Here are 10 leadership lessons from her book that can be applied to projects.

#1 Approach to leadership

Alison starts off by saying that the development of yourself as a leader should be a deliberate, conscious process. People are not born leaders. It’s a ‘muscle that needs to be built.

Leadership is an attitude. Alison believes that we all need to be better leaders. If we put effort into that, we can have much positive influence on the people around us. I think this is especially true on projects. Empower the team to think and act like a leader. This means that we need to help them hone their skills, their knowledge and encourage them to think for themselves and to make critical decisions without always requiring input. Team members need to be able to carry on with the work, even if the leader becomes ill or is on leave.

One way to help develop leadership skills in others is to give them greater responsibility to grow themselves as leaders. This will make the whole team more effective. Developing your own skills and the skill of others should be a never-ending process.

#2 Mentors

Engage with others who are more skilled than you are and learn from the best. Find mentors in your organization, people with experience and people you look up to.

#3 Go backward to go forward

The way Mount Everest is climbed is that climbers start at base camp and go up to Camp 1, then come back. Next they go up to Camp 1 and the following day to Camp 2. Then they go back to basecamp. Then they go up to Camp 3 only to come back down again. Then they go all the way up to Camp 4, sleep over and when the weather allows, they ascend to the top.

Her lesson from this is that there’s real value in going back to your starting point to regroup, to reposition yourself to be stronger before you can ascend to the next level. Even great athletes and sport stars focus on the fundamentals over and over again, by doing the same drills, not because they haven’t mastered it, but because repetition builds strength and enhances agility.

Therefore, reward and encourage progress in all forms, not just the obvious ones.

#4 Conflict management

On every project there will be conflict at some point making it a predictable component of group dynamics. It can be healthy to as it brings different perspectives. Conflict only becomes dangerous when it is unresolved.

It’s important to bring conflict out into the open. This is where communication is key. It’s essential to make team members feel valued and that his or her opinion matters.

#5 High Performance Teams

All women team to Everest — Source: Road & Travel Magazine

Alison shares an important insight on putting together a high-performing team. You want people who are good at what they do and who know that they’re good as that gives them confidence. This is called performance ego.

Another type of ego you want is team ego. A group is only a team when every member of the group cares as much about helping the other members as they care about helping themselves.

I have seen this on multiple projects before where a high-performing team contributes to hugely successful projects. When you put a team together, you need to look for:

Experience
Expertise
Ego

#6 Relationships and Networking

Developing strong relationships is critical to success. As a project leader you need to take the time and effort to connect with people at every stage of your career. Find people who will rally around you, encourage you and support. Attend those conferences and networking events; you never know which connections will lead to more success in future.

#7 Weak links

The way you deal with the weak link on your team often means the difference between success and failure. When you have to work with people who are as good as you are, those who can’t perform as well, or who don’t match your skills.

To compensate for a weakness is about leveraging hidden attributes in innovative ways that can move you and your team forward. As a leader you need to help every team member to become productive so that everyone on the team benefits.

#8 Build Trust and Loyalty

Never underestimate the importance of treating other with respect and kindness. Also take the time to get to know the people on your team as individuals. Get to know them on a deeper level. That will form strong bonds and people will know they matter.

Each person needs a different approach when it comes to helping them perform at their best. The more information you uncover, the more influence you can have as a leader. You need to adjust your coaching style based on the needs of your team.

The more dedicated you are to your team, the harder they will work for you and for one another.

#9 Complacency

Following the status quo, could be a mistake that businesses, teams fall prey to. Different situations call for different actions. As a leader you need to evaluate all the circumstances in order to know what you best move is.

Complacency can be characterized by not preparing, not making a move, not moving fast enough or not being agile enough.

If you’re busy with your 10^th or 50^th project, you still need to be alert, prepared and agile.

#10 Embrace your Failures

As leaders we need to own our failures. It’s important to learn from them as that is what really makes us grow as leaders. When we achieve something that we have worked hard for, we need to take a moment to reflect on it.

For many people it’s easier to avoid the risks of failure, unless we have failed before. Something about surviving past setbacks that increases our willingness to risk again.

If you’d like to read a book filled with adventure stories and lessons, don’t miss out on this exciting book:
On the Edge: Leadership Lessons from Mount Everest and Other Extreme Environments

April 27, 2017May 12, 2019 Linky

How Big Data Can Solve Leadership Challenges

Big data can be defined as ‘the large volume of data – both structured and unstructured – that inundates a business on a day to day basis’, according to research done by the University of Norwich. Data that modern businesses generate including web traffic logs, social media posts, blog posts, transactional data etc.

By understanding big data and analyzing it correctly, leaders can benefit greatly from the insights provided which will lead to better decisions and more strategic businesses. It can be used to extract insights on consumer behavior, market trends, revenue growth, as well as brand perception and reach; therefore solving diverse automation and leadership challenges.

Find more fascinating research on big data’s role and impact on organizational leadership and management in this Infograpic brought to you with compliments from the Norwich University’s Online Master of Science in Leadership program.

It explains the challenges posed by big data, how big data is utilized across organisations, how big data is fueling business growth, requirements for handling big data and some case studies.

Consider this research when you create your strategies for dealing with big data.
Norwich University Master of Science in Leadership Online